I have a Dell Precision Laptop model M4400 with an Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 processor. In the BIOS, there are several options for enabling virtualization technology (VT-x). I've toggled all of these options ON. My problem is that neither Virtual PC 2007 nor Sun's VirtualBox will allow me to use VT-x on this system.

Host OS: Windows Vista Enterprise SP1 (64-bit)

Thanks for any information or insight you can provide. For the more technical folks, here's the VirtualBox log file that is generated with I boot an Ubuntu guest:

6 Answers
6

I've uncovered the mystery. In the BIOS for the M4400, there are 3 options for virtualization. One of those options is called "Trusted Execution" which I had turned on. Even though my TPM was enabled, for some reason this setting was causing the system to not recognize VT-x. Once I disabled "Trusted Execution" in my BIOS under the "Virtualization" section, I was able to use VT-x in Virtual PC and Sun xVM VirtualBox

+1 for the Securable link. According to Securable, my system does support VT-x. I'm checking into the BIOS details now...
– Scott AndersonJun 15 '09 at 22:14

Unfortunately, updating to the latest BIOS did not resolve this issue. I double-checked after the BIOS update that VT-x was enabled, and I still get no results from VirtualBox or VirtualPC 2007. SecureAble still shows that everything is okay.
– Scott AndersonJun 15 '09 at 22:45

I'm going to try this Monday. It's my work laptop, and it occurs to me that it's always been plugged in (or at least on stand-by) since I changed this setting.
– Scott AndersonJun 21 '09 at 16:53

Should work, my think pad was similiar. I pulled the battery to be sure to was totally powered down.
– SpaceManSpiffJun 22 '09 at 6:48

This did not work :( I even removed the battery.
– Scott AndersonJun 23 '09 at 13:17

That sucks, I'd say you're at the call Dell part. If they give you any BS about not able to support you just ask for the tech's manager. I've done that with them a couple of times, at the very least you can let your frustrations out on them if they don't/can't help you.
– SpaceManSpiffJun 23 '09 at 13:36